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An Ordinance amending Section 1 of Ordinance Number 23-06-OR, approved by Council on September 26, 2006 and signed by the Chief Executive on October 4, 2006, by placing additional information in the Legislative Findings.
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WHEREAS, Allegheny County Ordinance 23-06, which implemented regulations governing smoking in public places in Allegheny County, was signed into law on October 4, 2006; and
WHEREAS, since passage and signing of Ordinance 23-06, the Council has determined that it is desirable to include a specific reference to the 2006 report of the Surgeon General, entitled "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke;" now, therefore,
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 1 of Ordinance 23-06 is hereby amended as follows:
Legislative Findings. The Council finds that:
(a) Tobacco smoke, whether inhaled through smoking or indirectly through exposure to smoky environments contains more than 4,000 known chemical compounds that are released into the air as particles and gases.
(b) According to a 2001 report issued by the National Cancer Institute, there are sixty-nine known or probable carcinogens in tobacco smoke.
(c) In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published results of an environmental tobacco smoke study, whose rates applied to Allegheny County population data for 2005 suggest that each year 227 non-smoking residents die from lung cancer as a result of environmental tobacco smoke exposure.
(d) For children, the 1999 EPA report concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is causally associated with increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia; increased prevalence of fluid in the middle ear; and, increased symptoms of upper respiratory tract irritation, is responsible for increases the number of episodes and the severity of symptoms in asthmatic children, and causes thousands of non-asthmatic children to develop this condition each year. Based on 2005 census data and EPA estimates, approximately 2,500 Allegheny County children experience exacerbation of their asthma, and 945 toddlers under 18 months of age suffer lower respiratory tract infections due to environmental tobacco smoke.
(e) A 2004 study appearing in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that levels of cancer-causing particulates were up to 50 times higher in a smoky bar than on a busy highway. There is also credible evidence that non-smoking bar and restaurant workers' blood cotinine levels are similar to those of smokers due to heavy environmental tobacco smoke in some establishments. This type of exposure results in the same risks for neoplasms, lung, heart and vascular diseases among non-smoking hospitality workers as in workers who choose to smoke.
(f) The aforementioned study also found that while three-fourths of white collar workers are covered by smoke-free workplace policies, fewer than 13% of bartenders and 28% of wait staff have the benefit of a smoke-free workplace. In 2002, food service workers accounted for the fourth highest number of employees in the workforce; and, 20% were teenagers; 56 % were female; approximately 12% were African-American; and, nearly 20% were Hispanic.
(g) Ventilation devices are very expensive to retrofit into existing buildings and there is no scientific evidence to demonstrate that ventilation technology can effectively rid an indoor environment of secondhand smoke. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has concluded that ventilation is not an acceptable engineering control measure for controlling occupational exposure to secondhand smoke.
(h) Based on 2005 survey data, 77% of Pennsylvanians believe that people should not be exposed to secondhand smoke in public places, and only 16% of Allegheny County adults smoke on a daily basis.
(i) Many citizens of Allegheny County are exposed to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke due to its widespread presence in public places and in the workplace, and that, in the absence of a state statute treating smoking in public places, local restrictions are necessary to protect the public's health, safety and welfare.
(j) According to the Surgeon General's 2006 report, "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke," secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in adults and sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory problems in children.
(k) The Surgeon General's report also found that there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure, with even brief exposure adversely affecting the cardiovascular and respiratory system, that only smoke-free environments effectively protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure in indoor spaces, and that millions of Americans continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces.
(l) The Surgeon General further concluded that secondhand smoke has been found to contain more than 50 carcinogens and at least 250 chemicals that are known to be toxic or carcinogenic.
(m) Finally, the Surgeon General's 2006 report concludes that smoke-free environments are the only approach that effectively protects nonsmokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke; even sophisticated ventilation approaches cannot completely remove secondhand smoke from an indoor space. Because there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure, anything less cannot ensure that nonsmokers are fully protected from the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke.
SECTION 2 .
If any provision of this Ordinance shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Ordinance which shall be in full force and effect.